Hi all, I'm looking for some suggestions regarding my attempt at a Gingerbread Ale which, by the way, is also my first attempt at creating my own recipe. The idea is based on Randy Mosher's Gingerbread Ale in his book Radical Brewing. He says "the base brew should be a soft brown ale, lightly hopped, with no pronounced hop aroma." So that is my goal. Here is my recipe:

I ran this recipe through Brewsmith and it looks ok. It may be a little light in color which is why I added the Special B and the chocolate malt. I was trying to darken the beer without adding too much bittersweet flavor. Like I said above, this is my first try at my own recipe. I'm trying for a brown ale that will add contribute toward the gingerbread flavors without getting in the way. By the way, I am not really set up to mash anything yet so I can only steep grain and use extract for now.

I just add everything to the primary. Unless I am adding fruit and expecting a secondary fermentation.

Does that mean that the secondary fermentation is caused by the sugars from the fruit that is added after the initial fermentation is complete? I thought that once the yeast flocculated that things were pretty much over and the yeast was dormant. The addition of the new sugars from the fruit would reactivate the yeast?

Hi all, I'm getting ready to brew my 4th partial extract batch. This one is a Lemon Coriander Weiss and it calls for addition of coriander and lemon zest when the beer is racked to a secondary. I have read a lot that a secondary is not really necessary for clarification of the beer as many modern yeasts will clarify the beer on their own. Also, there is some risk of introducing oxygen during racking and causing oxidation of the beer.

My question is, can the lemon zest and spice be added directly to the primary without a problem or is the secondary fermenter required in this type of case? As a second part, what about dry hopping? Does that "require" that the hops be added when the beer is moved to the secondary fermenter or can it all be done in the primary?